Newly elected Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has denied claims that his administration has imposed a ban on hand carts in the Central Business District.
Reports emerged on Monday, August 29, that Sakaja had banned the hand carts, locally known as mkokoteni, eliciting an angry reaction from a section of members of the public on social media.
But in a tweet on Monday evening, the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party politician dismissed the claims as misleading.
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"Ignore the fake news. There’s no ban on mkokotenis and handcarts," Sakaja clarified.
Ignore the fake news. There’s no ban on mkokotenis and handcarts.— Johnson Arthur Sakaja (@SakajaJohnson) August 29, 2022
Sakaja's UDA party promised to empower the low-income earners in the just concluded August general election as part of their bottom-up economics initiative, hence the outcry.
Sakaja orders release of impounded boda boda
Earlier, the governor directed City Hall askaris to release all motorbikes, impounded by the county government, to their owners.
The county boss directed the City Inspectorate to also identify official drop off and pick up points within Nairobi and withdraw cases against riders whose motorbikes had been impounded for various offences.
Sakaja issued the directives in a meeting with employees of the Nairobi County Government on Monday morning.
The Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Director General Mohamed Badi had promised to release all the impounded boda bodas before the August 9 general election.
Badi admitted that some of the boda boda riders were victims of rogue officers.
“Since I took over Nairobi I have worked closely with the boda boda associations. It is true that boda boda operators have been harassed by rogue enforcement officers," Badi stated.
